BIO
Liora Michelle comes from the opera world, in which she performed well over twenty roles of the beloved lyric soprano repertoire, to critical acclaim, including such favorite romantic heroines as Violetta, Desdemona, and Tosca. Engagements have taken her to Japan, Estonia, Aix-en-Provence, Toronto, Australia, and around the Eastern United States. Concerts include a Steinway Hall recital for the International Rachmaninoff Society, the Italian Government’s international Verdi tribute, “Va, Pensiero,” as the Australian soloist, recitals at Weill Hall, and as a principal soloist for the Australian EMI-sponsored tribute to Maria Callas.
Ms. Michelle loved returning once again to her other home of Australia, for the Australian Premiere of the early and rarely performed Verdi opera, Attila, in the formidable role of Odabella with the Melbourne City Opera. Back again in New York, Liora was delighted to perform with Maestro Vincent LaSelva in New York’s Central Park as Leonora in Il Trovatore, as the title role in Giovanna d’Arco and in one of her more frequent roles, as Mimì in La Bohème. In addition to opera productions, Liora stays engaged with concerts at area museums, festivals, and library concert series.
As part of a fortuitous foundation for her grand Cabaret journey, Liora toured in several Cole Porter and Rodgers & Hammerstein original biopic shows, and “variety shows”, during her years in Australia. Liora coalesced this and her ever-growing musical repertoire which included the highly eclectic musical exposure and various influences of an international family background, into a Cabaret show, The Greedy Soprano. This NYC Cabaret Debut adventure started in January of 2019 to critical acclaim and after two more sold-out nights, was brought back in November and December, 2019, and again in February and March of 2020. The Greedy Soprano was nominated for a MAC award for Best Debut in 2020.
It was whiling away the evening in piano bars with her friends, one of whom, the multi-cabaret award-winning, Bill Zeffiro, said in that inimitable Hollywood-esque fashion, “Let’s put on a show!”, that got her to dip a happy toe into this marvelous, and stunningly welcoming, Cabaret Universe. And thanks to the amazingly wise and perceptive, extraordinary, and multi-award-winning, Lennie Watts, she has happily avoided falling flat on her face. Thanks would not be complete without highlighting the incomparable Sidney Myer for creating the best cabaret home a girl could ask for at Don’t Tell Mama. She is also grateful to the terrific Tanya Moberly for giving her a go at co-hosting the Salon with Bill, and at Don’t Tell Mama, thus marking another step forward in NYC Cabaret rites of passage.
Staying connected to her operetta passion and background, Ms. Michelle recently wrote, produced, and performed in lecture-concerts of the music and history of iconic British composer/lyricist duo, Gilbert and Sullivan, at the 92nd Street Y and the National Council of Jewish Women, paying tribute to their extraordinary influence on the music and structural traditions in American Musical Theater.
Additional recent engagements include Katie Dunne McGrath’s prescient Immigrant Song: DIVA Experience at The National Opera Center, where Liora was able to share a brief version of her family’s holocaust survival story and glamorous European sojourn thereafter. And, able to speak Mandarin, winter saw Liora engaged again for several Chinese Lunar New Year concerts.
Ms. Michelle can be relied upon for a rousing “God Bless America” or National Anthem. She enjoys performing for the honored veterans, who often grace the storied New York City East-Side neighborhood at the restaurant establishment of Neary’s. (She can also be heard in the Neil Leifer PBS-aired documentary about Neary’s, The Dream at the End of the Rainbow.)
Liora is conversant in several languages, enjoys dancing ballroom and lindy, and has been seen dabbling in flamenco and tap.
